An interactive decision support system for implementing sustainable relocation strategies for adaptation to climate change: a multi-objective optimisation approach

Abstract

Global warming may cause low-lying areas to be inundated because of frequent flooding and rising sea levels. It may further intensify dehydration of semi-arid zones. Such environmental impacts may require planned relocation of a section of population and force others to adapt to these evolving situations. In this article, we discuss a multi-objective optimisation approach for deciding what fraction of a population will be relocated to another location and what fraction of it may be retained for effective adaptation to climate change. We consider various costs, people's preferences and priorities of planning objectives in a goal programming model and illustrate the concept with the design of a decision support system for interactive analysis of complex multi- faceted environmental decisions.